the same to the poor, the ignorant, and the weak as to the rich, the wise,
and the powerful.

Among the most remarkable of its attributes, is justice; for it looks with
impartial eyes on kings and on slaves, on the hero and the soldier, on
philosophers and peasants, on the eloquent and the dumb. From all, it
exacts the same obedience to its commandments: to the good, it promises the
fruits of his labors; to the evil, the reward of his hands. Nor are the
purity and holiness, the wisdom, benevolence, and truth of the Scriptures
less conspicuous than their justice. In sublimity and beauty, in the
descriptive and pathetic, in dignity and simplicity of narrative, in power
and comprehensiveness, in depth and variety of thought, in purity and
elevation of sentiment, the most enthusiastic admirers of the heathen
classics have conceded their inferiority to the Scriptures.

The Bible, indeed, is the only universal classic, the classic of all
mankind, of every age and country of time and eternity; more humble and
simple than the primer of a child, more grand and magnificent than the epic
and the oration, the ode and the dramas when genius, with his chariot of
fire, and his horses of ire, ascends in whirlwind into the heaven of his
own invention. It is the best classic the world has ever seen, the noblest
that has ever honored and dignified the language of mortals!

If you boast that the Aristotles and the Platos, and the Tullies of the
classic age, "dipped their pens in intellect," the sacred authors dipped
theirs in inspiration. If those were the "secretaries of nature," these
were the secretaries of the very Author of nature. If Greece and Rome have
gathered into their cabinet of curiosities the pearls of heathen poetry and
eloquence, the diamonds of pagan history and philosophy, God himself has
treasured up in the Scriptures, the poetry and eloquence, the philosophy